Bumblebee could fly over Mount Everest, say scientists

Researchers have found that a species of Chinese bumblebee, Bombus impetuosus, can fly even when the air pressure falls to a level equivalent to an altitude of 9,000 metres - enough to fly over the 8,848-metre-high peak of Mount Everest.

According to the scientists, even when the oxygen concentrations fell perilously low, the bumblebees still managed active flight in conditions equivalent to thin air on top of Mount Everest.

Michael Dillon of the University of Wyoming said that the bumblebees effectively increased the force produced by their flapping wings to compensate for the thinness of the air.

He said that a flying bumblebee has an oxygen demand roughly 15 to 20 times that of an elite athlete, yet in their experiments they meet this demand in spite of a greatly reduced supply.

The researchers caught the wild bumblebees belonging to the species Bombus impetuosus that forage for nectar and pollen in the mountains near Rilong in Sichuan province of China, and within 10 minutes they had been placed in a barometric chamber and their flight filmed as the air pressure was gradually lowered.

The study has been published in the journal Biology Letters.